The Norton Anthology of English literature. Volume 2

Here on earth they bore their fruitage, mirth and folly were the crop:

What of soul was left, I wonder, when the kissing had to stop?

15

"Dust and ashes!" So you creak it, and I want" the heart to scold. lack

Dear dead women, with such hair, too�what's become of all the gold

Used to hang and brush their bosoms? I feel chilly and grown old.

ca. 1847 1855

Love among the Ruins

1

Where the quiet-colored end of evening smiles,

Miles and miles

On the solitary pastures where our sheep

Half-asleep 5 Tinkle homeward through the twilight, stray or stop

As they crop�

Was the site once of a city great and gay

(So they say),

Of our country's very capital, its prince

10 Ages since

Held his court in, gathered councils, wielding far

Peace or war.

2

Now�the country does not even boast a tree,

As you see,

15 To distinguish slopes of verdure, certain rills

From the hills

Intersect and give a name to (else they run

Into one), Where the domed and daring palace shot its spires

20 Up like fires

O'er the hundred-gated circuit of a wall

Bounding all, Made of marble, men might march on nor be pressed,

Twelve abreast. 3

25 And such plenty and perfection, see, of grass

Never was!

Such a carpet as, this summertime, o'erspreads

And embeds

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LOV E AMONG TH E RUIN S / 126 5 Every vestige of the city, guessed alone, 30 Stock or stone� Where a multitude of men breathed joy and woe Long ago; Lust of glory pricked their hearts up, dread of shame Struck them tame; 35 And that glory and that shame alike, the gold Bought and sold. 4 Now�the single little turret that remains On the plains, By the caper overrooted, by the gourd 40 Overscored, While the patching houseleek's1 head of blossom winks Through the chinks� Marks the basement whence a tower in ancient time Sprang sublime, 45 And a burning ring, all round, the chariots traced As they raced, And the monarch and his minions and his dames Viewed the games. 5 And I know, while thus the quiet-colored eve 50 Smiles to leave To their folding, all our many-tinkling fleece In such peace, And the slopes and rills in undistinguished gray Melt away� 55 That a girl with eager eyes and yellow hair Waits me there In the turret whence the charioteers caught soul For the goal,

When the king looked, where she looks now, breathless, dumb 60 Till I come.

6 But he looked upon the city, every side, Far and wide, All the mountains topped with temples, all the glades' Colonnades, 65 All the causeys,2 bridges, aqueducts�and then, All the men! When I do come, she will speak not, she will stand, Either hand On my shoulder, give her eyes the first embrace 70 Of my face, Ere we rush, ere we extinguish sight and speech Each on each.

I. Common European plant with petals clustered 2. Causeways or roads raised above low ground, in the shape of rosettes.

 .

126 6 / ROBERT BROWNING

4

In one year they sent a million fighters forth

South and north,

75 And they built their gods a brazen0 pillar high brass

As the sky,

Yet reserved a thousand chariots in full force�

Gold, of course.

Oh heart! oh blood that freezes, blood that burns!

so Earth's returns

For whole centuries of folly, noise, and sin!

Shut them in,

With their triumphs and their glories and the rest!

Love is best.

1853 1855

"Childe Roland to the Dark Tower Came"1

(See Edgar's Song in "Lear")

My first thought was, he lied in every word,

That hoary cripple, with malicious eye

Askance0 to watch the working of his lie squinting sidewise

On mine, and mouth scarce able to afford

Suppression of the glee, that pursed and scored

Its edge, at one more victim gained thereby.

What else should he be set for, with his staff?

What, save to waylay with his lies, ensnare

All travelers who might find him posted there,

And ask the road? I guessed what skull-like laugh

Would break, what crutch 'gin� write my epitaph would begin to

For pastime in the dusty thoroughfare,

If at his counsel I should turn aside

Into that ominous tract which, all agree,

Hides the Dark Tower. Yet acquiescingly